Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem!

Shabbat shalom from Jerusalem!

Hi, All! Yes, I'm here. :) Made it safe and sound this past Sunday/Monday (sort of the same day in my perception due to the time difference).

It is soooooooooooo beautiful here!

This week has been non-stop with the tour group I'm starting out with. Turns out I have been somewhat the "runt of the litter" when it comes to recovering from jet lag. :) Our first three days in the desert near the Dead Sea were challenging. Totally worth it of course, but challenging. Fortunately the Lord has surrounded me with wonderful people. My roommate Sonja works with the ICEJ (the sponsor of this tour) and took very good care of me those first few days, bringing dinner to me when I couldn't get out of bed, stuff like that. Apparently the Lord is not yet finished breaking me of my self-reliance! That was hard but so appreciated. Some of you may recall that meeting people from all over the world was one of the things I really hoped for on this trip. Sonja was the first of those; she live here in Jerusalem but is from Germany. I also have new friends from Sweden, Finland, and Manitoba. And of course most of us are from the US. It's a great group.

After the desert, our travels took us (among other places) to the Jordan River, where I got baptized, a huge fulfillment of a seven-year conviction and desire of my heart. Then we spent a day in the Galilee. I absolutely fell in love with it! The lake (not "sea") of Galilee may be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

Yesterday we progressed to Jerusalem. Saw a bit of the Old City last night, and will be all over Jerusalem today.

There's much more, but these are some of the highlights.

Our tour guide, Mishi, is amazing. He is clearly very well-read and although Jewish through and through, knows more about the Bible (both testaments) and Christianity than most Christians! He does a great job teaching us the history, archaeology, and biblical relevance of all the places we're going. What's really funny is that everywhere I go, even as I am totally soaking up all the sights, sounds, history, and so forth, what I am really drawn to and fascinated by is the languages here. Obviously Hebrew - what a joy it is to hear so much of it! And most Israelis speak English also, so they are very patient as I try to speak the little bit of Hebrew that I can, and switch in mid-thought to English. :) Yesterday a cashier told me my Hebrew was yapheh (beautiful). After I sloooooooooowly processed/understood what she had said, I was delighted. I am enjoying listening to Madelene and Saara break out into Swedish. And after I bought a Hebrew-Russian New Testament (!) yesterday, Saara is starting to teach me the Russian alphabet. :) It is also fascinating to me to observe the way Saara, Madelene, Mishi, and the locals speak English. Meanwhile as we ride around in the bus, I am trying to read the street signs and stuff like that, which are in unpointed Hebrew. It's fun when I can figure out a word here and there, although I certainly have a very long way to go!

I'm going to try to post some pictures later. Right now it's time to go meet the group!

Blessings and love to you all,
Erin :)